Five memories or events from 2016

5 memories or events from 2016.

The highlight of the year for me was spending 2 nights at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Hubby and I had a hotel room on the 16^th floor overlooking the falls, and I took a LOT of photos. Rainbows moving over the falls all afternoon, sunrise, sunset, a thunderstorm and the colored lights on the falls at night. And there's a small window you can open, to hear the falls during the night as we fell asleep. (and the trucks and buses in the morning...I closed that window pretty early!)

That trip was also our first time crossing an international border, so we had to get passports! We stopped at Port Huron, Michigan, dipped toes into Lake Huron, as we hadn't been to that Great Lake before. The border crossings were very smooth, just time consuming because of traffic backups. We knew that was likely. Funny, in the line to cross back into US, (into Detroit) the faster access line was moving more slowly than the line we were in!

This summer I also chaired our local Book Bag Bash, an event with a non-profit organization and several churches in which we give out backpacks filled with school supplies to needy families. There's also a free lunch, games, bounce houses--it's a few hours of fun for families. We began this at my church in 2012, giving out 162 backpacks the first year. We now host it at a city park, as we have outgrown the church grounds! This year, with 12 churches and about 75 volunteers, we gave 764 filled book bags. I have chaired this event from the beginning and have now 'retired' from it. We have an excellent team who will conduct it very well. And I may drop by to take photos ;)

My photography hobby has mushroomed. For a few years, I've managed the church Facebook page, and photo posts do very well there. The church secretary likes photos for the newsletter too.
 My personal photos of nature scenes are also well received. Many of us find a sense of God or higher power in Nature. To take a walk and get some good photos is so relaxing.

The negativity and divisiveness of the national news and election has been deeply distressing for me as well as many of us. For a few years I have worked with other pastors & churches, especially the African-American churches in town, to have community services. These have been well attended and received. We will be planning our Lenten series very soon and I look forward to helping in some way to bridge the divides in our city. We all have a lot more in common than we realize and we must learn to seek and celebrate the commonalities.

How good and pleasant it is

when God’s people live together in unity! –Psalm 133:1 NIV

Good Friday Community service at United Church of Beloit. \

How Rude!

August 28, 2016 Practicing Love: How Rude! Pastor Carol P. Taylor

We're working thru the aspects of Love as depicted in 1 Corinthians 13.

I must confess, this series on Practicing Love has got me thinking! One would think this morning's theme, Love is not rude, would be a piece of cake for us all!  We're from the MIDWEST! We are polite! Well unless someone cuts us off at the stoplight...

“Love is not rude” 1 Corinthians 13:5a

5  It does not dishonor others, NIV

5  does not behave rudely, NRSV?

5  love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; GNT

hmm, well irritable...yes sometimes..(this morning in fact when I overslept!). So again, we are looking at the Practice of Love. Why 'Practice”? Because sometimes we have to work at sharing the Love of God as well as we should!

Scripture Luke 17:11-19

11  Now on his way to Jerusalem,  Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.  12  As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[b]  met him. They stood at a distance  13  and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master,  have pity on us!”

14  When he saw them, he said,  “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”  And as they went, they were cleansed.

15  One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God  in a loud voice.  16  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him―and he was a Samaritan.

17  Jesus asked,  “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?18  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”19  Then he said to him,  “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

17:12  lepers.  People with leprosy were required by law to keep away from healthy people (Lev. 13:46); these came as close as they dared and called out loudly.

Rules about leprosy,.. which may or may not have actually been “Hansen's disease! Any skin disease one was isolated until examination. Since skin conditions include disease and various sort of rashes. A rash that is caused by an allergy may look and feel terrible! But it's not contagious. It may well look like a condition that is contagious. So in this time, anyone with a skin condition was considered 'unclean', that is to be contagious or not allowed to interact with others.

The Samaritans thought of themselves as Jews - descendants of Joseph's line instead of Judah's, worshiping at the "true" center of faith at Mt. Gerizim - but Jews nonetheless. The rest of Judaism branded Samaritans as "Gentiles" - lumping them in with all the other pagan religions.

as they went.  Jesus’ command, when nothing had yet happened to the men, was a test of faith. They were healed as they went in obedience to Jesus’ word. They obeyed, they said yes, they followed his command and were healed as they went along.

The 10th leper, the samaritan, He was an outsider –outsider among outsiders! Yet he's the one who “saw' that he was healed as he went along and he turned back!

The health the Samaritan leper celebrates at Jesus' feet is a feeling of wholeness he has never before experienced. It is something no priest, no doctor, could measure or prescribe. The Samaritan returns to the source of his healing at Jesus' feet to offer praises of thanksgiving "with a loud voice." He whoops it up in joy!

 if all 10 were cured, then they all could have “seen” this much. What this one leper “sees,” then, is something more. We should recall that in Greek, the same term is used for “healing” as is used for “salvation.” This leper’s eyes are opened to the fact that he is not only “healed,” but “saved” as well.

Accordingly, he “returns” to Jesus and begins “praising” or “glorifying” God.

In these times, if you had any sort of illness, injury or hard times, it was believed to be due to some sort of sin in your life. Remember the disciples asked Jesus about the man born blind, did he sin or his parents? And what was JC response? Neither! This is for God's glory, and he healed him.

The word in the Bible for healing ” is Sozo. (sode'-zo) it means to be saved for eternity, but it means more than that. Remember the languages of this time had fewer words than our modern English, so each word had more than one meaning, actually layers of meaning. So looking at the layers of meaning of these words adds tremendously to our understanding of the Bible. Sozo, this great word, means to be saved for eternity. It also means to be protected or saved from danger, to be healed, made well, to be restored to health and wholeness. Sozo brings shalom! The perfect healing, wholeness and protection of God. When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God, Shalom is what he meant!

This is what this Samaritan Leper discovered and and why he came back, praising God and worshiped at Jesus' feet. For when we have that powerful love and wholeness that only comes from God, it is only right to praise and worship, in fact I believe we are not completely healed until we DO! And then carry that love, and wholeness to others, in the Name of the One who loves and heals and helps us. .

This Samaritan Leper, an outsider among outsiders, was the only one of the 10 to get it, to understand that he was not just free of his skin disease, but that he was completely free of all that kept him from God and from others. He would never again be an outsider

Have you ever felt like an outsider?

Being the one of the last picked for the team? Being different from your friends, for whatever reason? We've all felt that way on some level, some because of family circumstances, or having a job that required night work, or not having a job. Maybe you had a health issue that affects your abilities, but isn't immediately obvious to others, so you might be called lazy when you are trying to get some needed rest?! How RUDE!

We all have STUFF, everyone of us has something we have had to deal with over the years. And sometimes we act out because of our stuff. We are irritible, or unloving.. And sometimes others act out -because of their stuff.

practice of love.... why call it 'practice'? Because living in love in faith, does not always come naturally to most of us. We may tend to react badly to others' bad behaviour. If someone yells, you may want to yell back. We have to think about how to react and even practice keeping our cool when things-and people- going bonkers, are acting out because of their stuff!

And we need to practice our faith life too. Worship, bible time, prayer, these are all ways to help us stay connected to Our Loving Lord, When we stay connected, then we are more likely to hear, to discern what we are being led to. We begin meetings with prayer, because it's a way for us to help center ourselves and focus on the reason we are here at a church meeting, to serve! Not for ourselves, but to serve!

And practice helps us to know when to say YES when there is an opportunity to reach out to others!

One of the best things about this church and you all, is the heart for mission and outreach. We say yes! We're quick to help when there is a need. We have a lot of missions that we help financially, enough that we have to be somewhat selective with our resources! I know of churches that are not particularly generous in their support of missions.. Need I say that those churches are struggling? In many ways! I confess to a fair amount of pride in the work that we do together with other churches! We take an active role in Caritas, with a few members who alternate attending their monthly meetings. We partner with a couple other churches during our week to host HOF, the local homeless ministry, which is supported by many churches in the area. John Pickart is current board chair of HOF. He also works closely with Meals on Wheels, which many of you help deliver!

And of course, we worked together with Faith Works and a dozen or so churches on the book bag bash. I' suspect you get tired of my going on about that, but it's a powerful example of God can do when a few people say YES to an opportunity to serve! And when we do, we make a difference.

Author Brennan Manning:

The greatest need for our time is for the church to become what it has seldom been: the body of Christ with its face to the world, loving others regardless of religion or culture, pouring itself out in a life of service, offering hope to a frightened world, and presenting itself as a real alternative to the existing arrangement.

This week, I was with a friend who works for a Catholic ministry. It's called Dismus Ministry and they give bibles and other materials to people incarcerated across the country. Dismus started small, and has grown to delivering materials and support in all 50 states, ministering both to the prisoners and the chaplains.  

Ron Zeilinger Sismus Minstry

THis week, prepping for today, our musician decided to play "What Wondrous Love is This?" as special music. 

Then yesterday, I looked for information about this ministry, the very first thing I found was a blog post...(a blog is an online journal) by Ron Z, a post from more than 3 years ago, in which he referneced “What Wondrous Love Is This?” 

NOT a coincidence! 

When requested by prison chaplains for their Catholic inmates, Dismas Ministry distributes free Scripture and faith resources, including Bibles, a unique prayer book for and by inmates, and faith study materials intended to support the faith-based rehabilitation of inmates. A goal is to provide the foundation for a healthy spiritual life that will serve them whether they remain behind bars or are eventually released.

“It tells them how to attend Mass, how to go to confession, how to pray the rosary, how to pray the stations, all of those different things,” Zeilinger explained about the material, which also includes a section on saints who also were incarcerated during their life.

“It’s wonderful stories of saints who you wouldn’t even imagine … being incarcerated for a period of time in their lives,” he said, naming St. Francis of Assisi, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Peter and St. Paul. “Those are very fascinating stories for the men and women, and they really appreciate that there were these wonderful friends of God who had that prison experience.”

Despite being a prison ministry, Dismas does not focus solely on the needs of inmates. Ron emphasizes that Dismas Ministry “puts victims central.” “Sometimes inmates say ‘my crime is minor’ and they have not thought about how their crime impacted other people, including themselves and their own families. There are victims to all crimes. We need to be aware of and attentive to how to make amends and we do that by teaching scripture.” Ron notes that Old Testament stories like that of Jacob and Esau are powerful teachings on transgression and reconciliation. The philosophy of restorative justice is woven into many of the Dismas materials and into its very mission. As Ron says, when you think about it, “The whole light and ministry of Jesus is one act of restorative justice. Jesus is the mediator, the bridge, in restoring the broken relationship between God and humanity.”

the perfect healing, the Sozo, of Jesus encompasses this restoration that Dismus Ministry is teaching. Ron Zeilinger is a powerful example of someone who said YES to a chance to serve.

In researching him, the first thing I came across was actually an older blog post...a blog is an internet journal. “web log” that folks post online. I happened across this entry from Holy week, 3 years ago. Dismus Ministry is named for the “good thief” of the crucifixion story. Jesus was crucified between 2 criminals. One hurled insults at Him, the other asked, “remember me when you come into your kingdom” and Jesus replied, “today you will be with me in paradise!”

“The things that unfolded on the cross between this “good thief” as he has been called traditionally and Jesus is truly remarkable. The entire passage of Luke 23: 33-43 is so profound in meaning that centuries of reflection by many holy people have not plumbed the depths of it.

The words and melody of the great American southern hymn “What Wondrous Love Is This?” keeps running through my mind. It is wondrous that God went to such stupendous lengths to reveal to us the infinite, unconditional love that He has for us fumbling human beings.

If Dismas can make it into the kingdom as the saint of the last minute rescue, there is always hope for the likes of us too. That is why we call ourselves in this prison ministry business “messengers of hope.”

My hope for everyone is that hope abounds in your lives as Holy Week unfolds in all its wondrous love.”

My hope and prayer is that hope abounds in your lives always, that each of us finds an aspect of that perfect love and life from Jesus Christ, that we praise and worship well, and that we continue to reach out in that love to share the Hope, healing, wholeness and saving Grace of Jesus, today and everyday. Amen.  

Weakness

Weakness  

Sermon given at  Ecumenical Good Friday Service, River of Life UMC, Beloit.

Scriptures:

Psalm 22:1-18, 25-31 (read responsively as a Congregation)

John 19:16-22, 31-37, 38-42

also responsive reading Litany of the Seven Last Words following the sermon.

(Intro self, Licensed Minister at United Church of Beloit)

These Ecumenical services help us to enjoy different orders of worship, different speakers, worship styles. And we get to spend time together with folks from other churches and be reminded that we are all indeed ONE body of Christ!

Today of course is Good Friday. This past Sunday, we waved our palms shouting hosanna to the king! Thursday evening ws the last supper, where Jesus washed feet and began the tradition of Communion. Then his arrest, and the shouts of Hosanna, became cries of Crucify him! Today we share powerful scriptures about the crucifixion. Right now, let's consider the Psalm.

Psalm 22 was composed by David, the great king of Israel, about 1000 years before the time of Christ. The Psalms have been referred to as the Jewish hymnal and the Christian prayer book. They were composed to be sung in worship. Ps 22 is a lament...a passionate expression of grief or anguish. In the Jewish tradition this Psalm is read at Purim, {poohr-eem} the holiday devoted to the story told in the Book of Esther of the persecution of the Jewish people by Haman. Jesus and his followers were Jewish, so would have known their scriptures well! Many of the things Jesus said during the 3 years of his ministry on Earth were quotes or references to the Hebrew scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. This Psalm, when read through our modern eyes, knowing the story of the crucifixion, is certainly a foreshadowing or prophecy of what Jesus suffered. Jesus said the first line of this Psalm while on the cross, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” this was the only time in the Gospels that Jesus referred to God as anything but “My Father in heaven” or “Abba”.

How could Jesus feel so utterly separated from God? He was God, he was

with God in the beginning, according to John chapter 1. Jesus said in John chapter 14, speaking to his disciples mere hours before his arrest, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” How, HOW, could Jesus feel so utterly separate from God?

He who was without sin, took on the sins of the world. The sin of every human being. Every single thing that keeps a person separate from God, for that is the definition of sin...Jesus took on during the beatings, the flogging, the crown of thorns, the crucifixion. The One who was fully human, fully divine, who endured the worst that humankind could dole out, was perhaps never more fully human, than on that cross, covered in our disgrace.

How could he do this? Could there have been another way? Could Jesus have saved himself, could he have commanded an army of angels to come down from heaven? Of course. But Jesus came to show that God's power and might are not the same as humans envision. Jesus preached, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” God's power, God's perfect kingdom is not like an earthly kingdom. God's Kingdom, a kingdom of “Shalom”, the Hebrew word meaning peace, wholeness,

and well-being, protection for all of God's creation. Shalom is when all is right with the world. When humans are in good relationship with God and with each other, as we were created for! In the earthly world, peace is usually obtained & kept by military power. But the peace Jesus offered is a different. It is a peace obtained, not by a show of force but by what seems to be utter weakness — Jesus died on a cross like a criminal and outcast.
How could this be?
Note that the latter part of our Psalm talks about God triumphant over the anguish. Not just personally for the psalmist, but for the Great Congregation....the people of God! That all will worship and bow down, for dominion...the kingdom of Earth.. belongs to God. That all will serve and be told about the Lord and proclaim his deliverance, saying “he has done it!”
How could this be?
Could it be, that with God things are done a bit differently than to the human mind? God's ways are higher than our ways, God's thoughts higher than our thoughts. Could it be that God's power is perfected...in weakness?

God came to earth...taking on human form, becoming an infant...what is more vulnerable than a newborn baby? Jesus was born, not in a palace, not to a family known for wealth and power! No, he was born to an ordinary working class family in a non-descript town. Over and over in his ministry, people had trouble understanding what he was saying, even those closest to him! Jesus, fully human and fully divine, loved people even when they were being clods.

Brennan Manning: Weakness relates us profoundly to the people we serve; it allows us to feel with them the human condition, the human struggle and darkness and anguish that call out for salvation. Further, weakness relates us profoundly and apostolically to God because it provides the arena in which His power can move and reveal itself; His power is made manifest in weakness.

Jesus became completely weak...for us, to save us! The word in the Bible that means 'to save” is Sozo. (sode'-zo) it means to be saved for eternity, but it means more than that. Remember the languages of this time had fewer words than our modern English, so each word had more than one meaning, actually layers of meaning. So looking at the layers of meaning of these words adds tremendously to our understanding of the Bible. Sozo, this great word, means to be saved for eternity. It also means to be protected or saved from danger, to be healed, made well, to be restored to health and wholeness. Sozo brings shalom!

Jesus was King of the Jews allright, but not in the way that was expected. He was not a messiah king that the Jewish people expected, one who would overthrow the oppression of the Roman Empire.

In the remarkable book Simply Jesus, Author NT Wright says;

You see, the reason Jesus wasn’t the sort of king people had wanted in his own day is—to anticipate our conclusion—that he was the true king, but they had become used to the ordinary, shabby, second-rate sort. They were looking for a builder to construct the home they thought they wanted, but he was the architect, coming with a new plan that would give them everything they needed, but within quite a new framework. They were looking for a singer to sing the song they had been humming for a long time, but he was the composer, bringing them a new song to which the old songs they knew would form, at best, the background music.

How could this be?

Jesus was a king beyond all human comprehension! He was a king come to bring about peace and wholeness and protection. He became weak, vulnerable, in order to display God's perfect power! How? ok I am gonna reveal the end here...not that the butler did it, but that Jesus rose from that grave! Shh don't tell the others, we'll let them be surprised, ok?

So...God's power was on display! But....where IS this peace and prosperity and protection? Why didn't it happen instantly? how come everythign isn't a bed of roses? How come we still have weeds and thorns and rocks?

Couldn't God have made the world all perfect again? Why can't the poor be housed and fed and clothed? Why are there still wars and genocide and atrocities. God could snap those fingers and make it all right! Why doesn't he? Could it be that the architect of this new framework has something grander in mind?

Our Psalm says, “Posterity will serve him..” We are among the posterity! We will serve the Lord. Love inspires action...For God so LOVED the world, he GAVE his only son.....We are to love and care for others. Could it be that we –those who know Jesus as Lord are indeed to help make this world better? That we are to help bring about this kingdom?

Author Ann Spangler writes:

If God is King of the whole world, why is the world such a mess? Couldn’t an all-powerful God do something about the poverty, crime, and suffering that have been part of the world’s story from the beginning? Wouldn’t an all-loving God want to? The question nags. It’s hard to ignore. It demands our attention.... God.... decided to take the long way round, quelling the world’s rebellion not by brute force but by the power of divine love. That strategy requires restraint. It takes patience. It means justice in a final sense has to be delayed. It means evil is played out to the bitter end so that love can draw as many people as possible into the kingdom.   To say it another way, the weeds and the wheat are allowed to grow up together until the world’s last day.

Richard Foster phrases it this way:Human beings are so important to God that the divine purposes are worked out through the messiness and sprawl of human history. Apparently, it is more important to God that human beings learn his ways in freedom than it is to get things done efficiently.

We are to learn God's ways and accomplish God's will! Yes God could make the world perfect again. But in order for humans to be fully in relationship with God and each other as we are created to be, we are to learn God's ways and help achieve that Sozo, that perfect Shalom. We can only do this through the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. How can we? We who represent half dozen or so church in a non-descript town in the midwest...How can WE help make God's Shalom come to earth? We can reach out, allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to stretch out a hand, and walk alongside someone in their loneliness, their grief, their hunger, whatever. We do this in the Name of the One who loved us so much, he gave his very life for each of us.

How can we? You see as we live our lives...and we go through the hard stuff, we learn compassion. Compassion means to to suffer with...as Jesus did with his friends when Lazarus had died, Jesus wept. They were standing outside of the tomb and Jesus joined them in their grief. He took on their anguish.

We learn compassion and we learn to care for one another, to walk with our friends and strangers through this thing called life, living out the LOVE that we have found in Jesus. When we comprehend that love, how can we NOT reach out? That love, that came to earth, from a throne in heaven, to become mortal, to live in a frail human body with aches and hunger and fatigue. That love that came to earth to live and to die...to die on a cross. That love calls us to reach out!

Author Brennan Manning again:

The greatest need for our time is for the church to become what it has seldom been: the body of Christ with its face to the world, loving others regardless of religion or culture, pouring itself out in a life of service, offering hope to a frightened world, and presenting itself as a real alternative to the existing arrangement.

We who are here today represent several churches here in the Greater Beloit area. Our city has not had it easy over the years. But we have good people here with good values and a core of strength to get through what we must. When we reach out to one another in love, we will find that we are blessed beyond our expectations. Our community needs us, our community needs our churches to show what love means. Our world will be a better place when we do so!

Today, as we contemplate the incomparable love that brought God to earth as a baby who grew up to show us how to love and care for each other, how to live and how to die-- today let us pray to better live out that love. It was our sin that put Him there, it is our calling to make that love shine again in this world.

the cross over the manger

Some time ago, I was “multi-tasking” in the Bible. I was planning Advent Bible studies, reading through the birth stories and making notes. And later that same day, hoping to write a devotion for the Lenten season, I read the Good Friday texts. Reading both the birth and death stories, something really struck me.

Luke 2:12 ESV

“and you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”

Luke 23: 52-53 {Joseph of Arimathea} went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down {from the Cross} and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid.”

the baby wrapped well is a sign that he was well cared for. Newborns like to be wrapped up, it helps them to feel secure.

That Jesus' body was wrapped in linen after his death was also a sign that he was being cared for, even though there was no time for the women to prepare the body with the oils and spices.

But there is obviously something more to these details! The parallels in both stories are there for a purpose. They remind us that the shadow of the cross lies over the manger. We love the Christmas story, we feel all warm and fuzzy when the children sing Away In A Manger. But Jesus didn't come just for us to feel warm and fuzzy! Jesus came-- God with us. And came as an infant! (The God of all creation!) just from love, from desire for complete relationship with us, His creation! And the only way to that complete relationship was the cross.

Jesus' mission was the cross. The One who would never sin was wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, would grow up to take ALL our sin, all the things that distract us from God for even an instant....upon Himself on the cross.

Can we remember this as we go through Advent and Christmas, can we remember to honor our Lord and do better caring for others, now and always? As we watch the children's programs, wrap the gifts, sing the songs, bake the cookies—remember, the Cross over the manger.

Today is Good Friday. I do not know why it is called Good Friday. Jesus was crucified on this day, so it should be called Bad Friday, shouldn't it? or as my pastor says, yes it is Friday, but Sunday's coming!

We had a lovely, moving service at church last night to commemorate the Last Supper. lots of Scripture, with time to meditate on each passage. the service began and ended with low lighting, with passages about Light and darkness.